It’s starting to feel like Christmas with snow on the ground and Christmas music in the air.

It is also the season for Christmas concerts for good causes.

The big one is Dec. 6 when the Huron Carole comes to Southminster United Church to raise money for Lethbridge’s food banks.

It features stories, songs and “tomfoolery” with Tom Jackson, George Canyon, Beverly Mahood, One More Girl and Shannon Gaye to raise money for Lethbridge food banks including the Interfaith Food Bank, Lethbridge Food Bank and the Kainai Food Bank in Standoff. The Huron Carole begins at the Southminster United Church at 7:30 p.m., Dec. 6. Tickets are available through the Ticket Centre for $45 or $95 for the VIP package.

If that isnt enough to get you in the Christmas spirit, the Lethbridge Community Gold Band conducted by Ken Rogers and the Silver Band conducted by Samuel Yakamoto plus Vox Musica under the tutelage of Glenn Klassen will be performing their annual Mayor‘s Christmas Concert, Dec. 7 at Southminster United Church. The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15. They will also be collecting donations for the Interfaith and Lethbridge Food Banks.

Also for fundraising, world-class violinist Rivka Golani is playing a fundraising concert at the University of Lethbridge in honour of highly respected elder and cultural leader Joe Crowshoe Sr., so all proceeds will go to the U of L’s First Nations, Métis and Inuit bursary fund. The performance begins at the University of Lethbridge Recital Hall at 8 p.m., Dec. 6.

Tickets are $70 or $65 for seniors and alumni.

Average Joe’s is hosting a lot of late-announced shows lately. This week they welcome back Vancouver based pop/reggae singer Daniel Wesley on Dec. 5. He is touring on his latest CD, “Ocean Wide.” He has also been nominated for a Western Canadian Music Award for his song “Fuel to Fire.” There is no cover for the show.

For something completely the opposite to that, drunken deviant and Canada’s most famous party animal, the Deaner of FUBAR fame will be in town to rock Studio 54 with Calgary rock band Shelbi, Dec. 7. Advance tickets are $20.

That is going to be a busy block Dec. 7, as around the corner at Inferno, Cleveland rapper Machine Gun Kelly returns to town to rock the place with Vancouver rapper Johnny Dilemma.

Around the corner from that, Calgary folk/rock singer Savk will be playing the Owl Acoustic Lounge in support of his new CD “Love Letters and Hate Mail.” The Jung People are also on the bill.

Things get started early in the week with classical music as Jesse Plessis plays Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Radiohead at Casa, Dec. 3 at 8 p.m.

Things get a little country and maybe a touch dirty when Washboard Hank returns to the Slice, Dec. 4 with his wife Sweet Muriel and Lance Loree.

Admission is $10.

For people who want to laugh, the Drama Nutz host a comedy open mic at Jimmy’s Pub, Dec. 5. They also perform Uncensored Improv, Dec. 4, at the NAAG Gallery. And Yuk Yuks comedy returns to Average Joe’s, Dec. 6 with Sam Easton, Jeff Kubik and host Randy Webb. The show begins at 9 p.m. Tickets are $10 at the door.

The Lethbridge Folk Club also returns this weekend with the Junkman’s Choir performing folk, blues, country and jazz music at the Moose Hall, Dec. 7. Admission is $20 for Folk Club members and $25 or non-members. The show begins at 8 p.m. sharp with opening act Dale Ketcheson. He also plays the Mocha Cabana, Dec. 6. Karen Romanchuk returns to the Mocha Cabana, Dec. 7.

If you like to rock and roll, local band Soup of Flies play Casino Lethbridge, Dec. 6 and Dec. 7 at 8 p.m. And don’t forget all of the open mics happening in Lethbridge. Steve Keenan hosts a blues jam, Dec. 6, Jimmy’s Pub has their regular open mic on Dec. 6 featuring blues/ southern rock band Driving While Blind as well while the Folk Club hosts their bluegrass jam on Dec. 6 in the Wolf’s Den.

Dean “the Deaner” Murdoch, the alter ego of Toronto actor Paul Spence, will be in Lethbridge at Studio 54, Dec. 7 to “give’r” during the Deaner Does XMAS — the first and best Christmas party of the season featuring Calgary rock band Shelbi and local acts to be announced.

The Deaner is the drunken, head-banging bastard child of Canadian hoser kings Bob and Doug MacKenzie and Saturday Night Live metalheads Wayne and Garth from Wayne’s World. He made his name as the star of Canadian cult movie classics FUBAR and FUBAR 2.

“November is too early for Christmas, but December — well, you’ll jingle and jangle until your **** fall off,” promised the Deaner, never one to shy away from dropping an f-bomb or other curses in casual conversation.

This time he won’t bringing his band Night Seeker, in which he plays bass and sings original music and classic metal like Iron Maiden Black Sabbath and AC DC.

“I couldn’t get hold of the band. Plus my guitarist got electrocuted in the forest where he was doing an experiment,” he said.

“But it’s all right. He’s fine. It wasn’t his beer-drinking hand. He’ll be ready to rock,” he said.

“But it will just be me in Lethbridge this time. I’ll be the party leader. I’ll be singing with some bands there. We’ll shotgun some beers and I’ll be giving out free s–t. I’ll be giving out some sweet VIP packages,” he said.

“If you’re a chick, the VIP package means you’ll be able to give me a massage,” he chuckled from his “office.”

“I just call it my office. It’s where I keep my book. It’s about wild animals,” he chuckled, riffing on the animals in the book, about caribous and moose and cheering for the Rough Riders in the Grey Cup.

He has fond memories of his last, messy show in Lethbridge and is excited about returning.

“It’s the birthplace of Pilsner. More people should know that,” he said.

“People know how to party there. Last time chicks were throwing their bras on stage at me,” he reminisced, admitting he even tried a few of them on while on stage.

“The Deaner will bring the Christmas party to the people,” he promised.

The Deaner and his buddy Terry actually wrote a book called, fittingly, “Just Give’r.”

“People are always asking us to ‘give’r, so we just sat down in a room with a guy and pounded some beers and wrote it. It’s long, too. There’s 232 pages in it and lots of pictures. You can be entertained for a year with it if you’re slow reader like I am. Keep it in your bathroom like I do, you can read maybe a half a page a day,” he said.

“It tells you how to give ’er and how to pick up chicks,” he said.

Even the Deaner knows his limits to make the party last well into the night and early into the morning.

“You have to know your strengths. For example, after three tequila shots, I’m breaking windows, so I won’t have tequila. Well, maybe one shot of it. And if you’re drinking at a pre-party for a show like AC DC, you want to see the show so you have to be careful. But if I’m in some guy’s basement and I don’t have to go anywhere, then forget about it,” he laughed.

“But I also know not to mix whiskey and Scotch. But if you do shots, you have to drink lots of water,” the Deaner advised. He is focusing on his music career with his band Night Seeker and working on their first CD.

“We’re going to release it in 2014, then we’ll do a full tour on it,” he said.

“We’re writing the next instant classic,” he enthused.

Tickets for the show, which begins at 9 p.m., cost $20.

Peterborough roots musician/funnyman Washboard Hank is happy to be part of 40,000 years of history.

“People have been playing and singing around campfires for 40,000 years. People have found 40,000-year-old flutes,” observed Hank Fisher, a.k.a. Washboard Hank, who comes to the Slice to perform with his wife Sweet Muriel and Lance Loree, Dec. 4.

He has been performing for close to 40 years as a children’s performer, an adult performer and even toured with the Fred Eaglesmith band early in his career.

“I have people with grandkids who grew up listening to me,” he observed from his Peterborough home, having just been pulled out of a snow-filled ditch.

“Serena Ryder (who sang the national anthem for the Grey Cup) said I was her very first concert,” he continued.

He plays a little bit of everything from country to rockabilly, but is best known for his custom-built washboard including everything including the kitchen sink (which also has PVC pipes and which he plays as a homemade tuba) as well as an assortment of bells, whistles, licence plates — anything he can get his hands on.

While he hasn’t recorded new music recently, he has been playing a lot. He has been playing with western swing/jazz band Catfish Willie and the Buckle Busters. He has also been playing solo gigs for all occasions.

“I play quite a few special events, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Robbie Burns Day, Groundhog Day. Then St. Patrick’s Day. That’s just what I do,” he said, adding he has written songs for all occasions.

His wife Muriel will be joining him on this quick five-date Alberta tour including stops in Lethbridge, Calgary, Edmonton, Tofield and Nanton, where he will begin recording an album with Steve Loree, who is Lance Loree’s brother.

“I have new songs about Rob Ford and electing Stephen Harper. So we’ll be playing a lot of stupid stuff and my wife Sweet Muriel has a video on the Internet of a dirty cat song that has something like 40,000 views, so she’ll be singing that,” he said.

Tickets for the show cost $10.

There’s nothing like a quick brush with death to get you life back on track. Vancouver-based rapper Johnny Dilemma has come a long was since having to undergo emergency brain surgery several years ago.

He has since toured with heavy hitters like Snoop Dogg, Kardinal Offishal and Bone Thugs N Harmony and will be coming to Inferno with Cleveland based rapper Machine Gun Kelly, Nov. 7.

He will be returning to Lethbridge, Dec. 7 to Inferno with Machine Gun Kelly. He is not only opening the show, but also tour manager for the tour which begins Dec. 1 in Kelowna.

“I’m getting pumped for this tour,” the Scarborough-born rapper enthused from his Vancouver home. He was last in Lethbridge in August supporting 2 Live Crew.

“The first time I saw Machine Gun Kelly, it blew my mind and I knew I wanted to get involved. There was so much energy. Honestly it was the most amazing act I’ve ever seen. It is more like a punk rock show, but with hip hop,” he described.

He noted his show isn’t quite like that, but he is bringing multi-instrumentalist Jeff Wales, who he met through engineer Stoker DeLuca.

“He plays guitar and bass and beatboxes,” he said.

He is dedicating his show to the memory of DJ Booda, a popular concert promoter who passed away in August.

“The show is definitely dedicated to Booda. He was a great guy. He helped a lot of people. He was a class act in the hip hop community. Ask any touring artist from coast to coast, and they will tell you a story about him. We’ve lost a really great guy,” he said.

Dilemma has come a long way in the past five years, when he started to take his music career seriously.

Before that, emergency brain surgery made him re-evaluate his life.

“I had a headache and went to get a CAT scan and five hours later I was undergoing emergency brain surgery,” he summarized.

“It definitely influenced my music. So I talk a lot about self-empowerment. I like a lot of different ideas,” he said.

“A lot of it is about feeling good, feeling confident, and of course, there is a lot about having a good time in the clubs,” he said.

He recorded a new CD, “the Stand” just for this tour.

“Would you believe it only took two weeks,” he asked, adding he wanted to put something new together for the new tour and jumped to it thanks to beats supplied by Justin Frew. The show begins at 9 p.m. Tickets are $40 regular, $70 VIP.

Reviews

Bocephus King can never catch a break when he brings his band to Lethbridge.

His Nov. 24 show at the Slice was no exception as literally a handful of people sat back and grooved to the Vancouver musician’s easygoing, freewheeling, hypnotic experimental jams, which included quite a few songs from his latest CD “Willie Dixon, God Damn.”

The title track of that CD came early in the set.

For something different Jesse Freed hooked up a keyboard and put it on top of the piano so Bocephus King a.k.a. Jamie Perry could add extra string sounds and beautiful organ.

It is always great to hear Charlie Hase play the pedal steel. Hase, who is now a Vancouver resident added haunting steel guitar throughout the long set, adding to the atmospheric effect of Bocephus King’s music.

One of the show’s highlights was an older song, “Good Night Montgomery Clift” which was one of several more exotic world music-tinged numbers which delved into reggae music. The band, which also included stand up bass and drums as Perry played both guitar and keyboards, added a variety of influences from all over the world plus a little bit of jazz as well as a touch of the blues as they jammed on their songs for as long as 15 minutes each.

For something different again, he showed his influences by playing some Name that Tune with the audience, putting his own spin on obscure songs by the likes of the Reverend Gary Davis, Joe Walsh, John Prine, Bob Dylan, old surf songs and the Beach Boys.

After he got bored with that, he tried to get the audience to play a little bit of musical “Hokey Pokey” before ending his set with “Cowboy Neal,” a highlight off of the “Willie Dixon, God Damn” CD.

The Reason, Thee Attacks at Average Joe’s

I haven’t seen a band as enjoyable as Denmark’s Thee Attacks in a long time.

They played an impressive show at Bo Diddly’s Nov. 23 for a fair-sized crowd that should have been twice as large.

While I missed an opening set from the Sophmore Jakes, I arrived just in time to catch Thee Attack’s incendiary set of hyperactive rock and roll combining elements of the Strokes with Jet, fellow northern rockers the Hives and liberal doses of the Who. They were almost literally bouncing off the walls and not missing a beat, a riff or a catchy vocal harmony.

They played pretty much all original music in their hot, high octane, sweaty set that was off the hook.

That made it a tough act to follow for Hamilton modern rock band the Reason who played a solid set of radio friendly modern rock beginning with “Don’t Fail Me” off their most recent album. But they had solid vocal harmonies and sing along choruses and catchy guitars reminiscent of Treble Charger and even a bit of the Foo Fighters.

They played a couple of brand new songs plus their radio hits including their latest “Drive Me Home.”

SonReal and Transit at Studio 54

Transit and SonReal entertained a decent crowd at Studio 54 Nov. 23.

Vancouver rapper Transit was in a good mood for his set. While I missed local openers Pzeudo and Rise, I caught a catchy set from Transit, who invited Pzeudo up on stage with him for a number. He had a couple catchy raps about clubs, picking up women and hipsters. Some guy in the audience got up on stage to dance, but he stepped back and laughed. He noted the last time he was in Lethbridge, it was with Madchild and dedicated his set to DJ Booda before making way for SonReal.

He had the crowd properly pumped up by the time SonReal took the stage. SonReal kept the enrgy levels high with a lot of solid beats and sang with quite a bit of soul in addition to his raps.